


Family

by im_gonna_regret_this



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Family Dinners, Gay, Good Parent Hank Anderson, Hank is basically Connor's dad, M/M, Parent Hank Anderson, connor is an anxious boi, except connor's family is a salty old lieutenant and a big dog, markus and connor are super gay, markus is a good boyfriend, might get angsty for 0.02 seconds because hank is old sad, this is really self indulgent and soft but also
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-07-28 10:13:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16239533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_gonna_regret_this/pseuds/im_gonna_regret_this
Summary: hank and sumo make connor happy. markus also makes connor happy. they've never really interacted, though, which is a shame, because they're two of the most important people (and the most important dog) in his life.maybe they should meet. maybe markus and hank would get along, and they could all have dinner together, like a normal human family.what could go wrong?





	1. idea formed. plan initiated. current objective: ask hank.

connor loves markus. markus loves connor. both of these statements, once deep secrets, had become common knowledge to both connor and markus- and a few others around them- nearly two and a half months ago.

markus loves his friends. not wanting to keep secrets from his closest and most trusted (aside from connor), he ended up telling north, simon, and josh pretty early on into the blooming relationship. they had all been really supportive since they all liked connor and liked to see markus happy, and this included both of those things. they had no reason to oppose it, or want to oppose it, which in turn only made markus more happy. two different worlds of his had merged, and the result was more than he could ever want.

connor loves hank. not in the same sense that he loves markus- definitely not- but he would consider the lieutenant his family in the same sense that markus considered his friends as family. he's pretty sure that hank had already mentally adopted the android as his son, and connor is one hundred percent okay with it. after all, they live together, hank gives him life advice sometimes, and even refers to him as 'son' and 'my boy' offhandedly. connor likes to consider hank the closest thing to a father he could ever get.

to put it in simple terms, connor cares very much about hank, and he cares very much markus. when he looks at markus' situation, and how happy he seems now that his friends, his _family_ , are aware of his relationship, he can't help but want that for himself, too. he doesn't know why, but he wants hank to know about markus.

connor _does_  also care about the things hank thinks about him, though. he isn't exactly starving for validation ̶(̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶h̶u̶n̶g̶e̶r̶)̶, but he's worried about what hank will think about it all.

but maybe he's just being silly. hank doesn't seem like the kind of person to care a lot about orientation or anything of the sort. right? would he even care if connor was in a relationship? positively or negatively? connor _could_  just continue living life and not tell him, and it would make everything easier on him emotionally.

still, connor feels he's hiding something he shouldn't have to. lies of omission were still lies, and despite the lines of code that had come loose from being pinned down on the cork board of his brain and tangled into a messy ball of red string, there was no clear, logical reason why he _shouldn't_  say or do anything.

maybe he could set up a situation where they meet? connor knows that the most markus and hank ever ever interacted was when the lieutenant saw markus' broadcast across the city; a nervous, but un-waveringly determined android on a quest for freedom, not only for himself, but for millions of others, as well. his message was made even more meaningful and direct by the removal of his skin, which came off as a sign of peace and humility to anyone who cared enough to understand how vulnerable the state was for androids. it was truly remarkable to witness, and every once in a while, connor'll bring up the video, just to watch it and see the determination, the hope burning in those mismatched eyes. he's proud to see that that fire has yet to go out.

connor thinks about how he needs to stop letting thoughts of markus distract him as he tries to focus on the topic at hand.

how should he get markus and hank to meet?

he tries to look into human culture to see what humans /normally/ do when trying to introduce their partner to their family, and after looking through pages of tv tropes, watching clips of movies and episodes of shows that cater to the specific topic, and reading through some surprisingly not sketchy or unintelligible yahoo answers, connor comes to the conclusion that the normal human course of action is to have dinner. in nearly every source he had found, the partner of the person in question was invited over to their family's place of residence, a meal was cooked, and they engaged in light, if not slightly awkward conversation, along with innocent questions ("so, how long have you to been together?" "what does person x do for a living?") and vague threats ("if you hurt my child, ill kill you.").

connor decides to make dinner plans, and it becomes one of the most important missions he's ever set off on in his life.

he splits the mission into three objectives: ask hank, ask markus, and have dinner. each objective has sub-objectives to complete, such as "get hank/markus to say yes" and "persuade". he makes sure to lay everything out, so-to-speak, and he runs through possible scenarios as he tries to find the perfect opportunity to begin his plan.

the first thing he needs to do is ask hank if markus can come over for dinner, but connor finds it easier said than done. he feels... nervous? yes, he feels, nervous, about the situation, and every 'attempt' he's made to ask the lieutenant so far has ended up in chickening out or _complete failure to even speak_  on his part, and steadily rising suspicion on hank's. perhaps a bit of subtlety on connor's part would make it easier to actually speak to him.

it's well into the evening when connor approaches hank. the lieutenant is sat on the couch, watching a basket ball game in the dark, fully aware of how bad it is for his eyes. connor's told him about the dangers, and how much more likely it is that he'll have to end up getting glasses, especially at his age, if he continues to stare at bright screens in dark places, but hank usually shuts him down with the fact that he already knows its bad and just *doesn't fucking care*. if that doesn't stop the android, a correctly pitched "are you callin' me old?" usually deters him, because he can't really come up with anything to say past a frustrated "no, you're not- i just- never-mind."

hank, who hasn't noticed connor ~~lurking in the shadows just out of his field of vision~~  yet, raises a bottle to his lips and takes a gulp. connor's initial response is to frown and try not to feel disappointed that hank is drinking again despite saying he would cut back, but he's very relieved to see that it's one of the water bottles the RK800 had begun to buy on a regular basis, to ensure that the lieutenant wouldn't be constantly dehydrated and drunk. it's easy to only drink alcohol when it's all you have on hand, and much, *much harder* to when an android that doesn't know how to quit is forcing you to consume a healthier, clearer alternative. it didn't help that he had accidentally guilt tripped the lieutenant by spending his own, hard-earned money because he was _worried_  about the older man's health.

connor takes a hesitant step forward, bringing himself into hank's view, and the light of the tv screen. it takes a second, but hank startles at the seemingly sudden appearance of his robot son, not even attempting to mask the surprise on his face, or how he almost spills some of his water.

"jesus christ, connor! don't just sneak up on me like that!" he says, lowering the clear, plastic bottle in one hand as he puts the other to his chest, "you tryin'na give me a heart attack?"

its clear that hank is goofing, at least partially, but connor doesn't really process it. he's supposed to be very good at multi tasking- and, well, he is- but it seems like his emotions, mainly his nerves, are a bit _distracting_ , so he can't really think _and_  examine the scene around him at the same time. usually, he would pick up on the lieutenant's joking tone, and sometimes, it would even make him chuckle a bit.

"i apologize, lieutenant." connor says instead, his tone robotically steady, and its much more dissatisfying than laughter. his eyes flicker from the tv to hank, and they continue to do so, as its both a nervous tick and an excuse not to have to maintain prolonged eye contact. connor's fingertips tingle and itch, and he wants to reach for his coin, but he settles for just rubbing his hands together instead, before he grips one wrist tightly in the other and holds them clasped behind his back.

it seems that hank picks up on connor's little tells, or maybe he's just cheating and looking at connor's yellow LED as it flashes and spins on his temple, or maybe its both- but he recognizes connor's absent-mindedness, and even though it's dark, he can see the far away look in the android's eyes as they move back and forth, not seemingly sure of what to look at but scared to look at *anything* for too long.

"you okay, son?" he asks in that soft, earnest tone of his; the one he only brings out when he's concerned.

connor, who had been having trouble staying still up up until this point, freezes, and he goes from glancing every which way to staring at and practically boring holes into a particularly interesting stain on the carpet that he can't even see since the only light in the room is the harsh, white glow that the tv is casting or slivers of warm yellow-orange from street lamps that can somehow carry their haze through the dark night and slip through the half-open shutters covering most of hank's windows.

this is a bad idea. the entire thing is a bad idea. connor is anxious and he's not feeling it anymore, and all of the vague confidence he'd conjured up over the course of the day is crumbling away under his touch and slipping through his fingers as if he'd picked up a sand castle, and all of the worries he'd tried to push down are returning to the surface and he really wants to back out.

but hank is looking at him and he looks just the slightest bit worried, and he's scooting throw pillows over and patting the seat next to him, trying to get connor to sit down on the couch and talk to him.

connor steps out from behind the couch and sits down on the edge of the seat, balancing most of his weight on his feet, so he's just sort of hovering. it doesn't look anything like normal sitting.

hank gives him a look that's one part frustrated and three parts concerned-parent. "c'mon, connor, you can tell me anything," he says, and connor wants so badly to trust him. so he does.

" _hank_ ," connor says, slowly, dragging out the syllable and subconsciously stalling at the same time.

" _yeah?_ " hank says, curiously and just as slow. this time, even though the possibility of it being a joke is even lower than the previous actual attempt at goofing hank had made, connor exhales out of his nose a little bit, like a meme loving cryptid when they see a shitpost on their dash at 3am, a small smile appearing suddenly on his face. it's gone almost immediately as his nerves slowly ebb their way back into the edges of his consciousness.

"hank," connor repeats, more cut-to-the-chase-y than before, "hank, i-"

and then he stops himself. should he actually tell hank outright? right now? sure, the lieutenant seemed pretty chill, and, as previously stated, connor _wants_  to trust him, but should he really be dropping his biggest and only secret right now? at 8:33pm at night on a tuesday in the nearly pitch black living room? the setting just doesn't seem right. the timing feels off. it just isn't good. maybe he should just save the big reveal for when he and markus meet. it seems like the best course of action.

"hank," connor says, _again_ , and hank looks like he's about to call him out on his bullshit for stalling, but he speaks again pretty much instantly so there's no time for it, "there's someone i want you to meet."

hank looks at him blankly before blinking a few times. "okay?" he says, uncertain, "what, like, right now?"

this, for some reason- maybe the sheer stupidity of hank thinking that connor had randomly brought a complete stranger into his house at 8:35pm on a tuesday night- almost makes him laugh. a fond smile stretches across his face instead.

"no," connor says, "of course not right now. but,"

and, in addition to being blatantly funny, hank’s comment does give him a good opening for sharing about the topic at hand.

"a few days in the future would be optimal. perhaps, we could all have dinner together?"

connor awaits an answer, face carefully blank, eyes wide and expectant. hank seems to mull it over for all of two seconds before he shrugs, uttering a "yeah, sure".

"okay," connor grins, "cool."

"cool," hank smiles, "okay."

they sit in silence for a few seconds. hank blinks. connor blinks twice in response.

"so," hank starts, "do have anything to do, or?"

connor, realizing that the basketball game hank was watching is still paused and assuming his presence is unwanted, moves to get up.

"i apologize for interrupting, i'll," fuck, what's a thing he could be doing? he doesn't really have hobbies, maybe, work? "go look over the new case files." yes, perfect.

"i, what? no," hank sighs, pinching at the bridge of his nose, "i just wanted to see if you were busy with something or not. do you wanna watch the game with me?"

connor slides back into his seat, nodding profoundly. "of course i would like to watch the game with you, but which one? i've always been partial to Adventures & Androids, but i wouldn't be against watching a nice game of Connect 8, or, perhaps, some Monopoly."

hank sighs and rolls his eyes, but he has to force the smile off of his face as he reaches for the tv remote and un-pauses the game.

ah, the infamous game. it's never really the same exact game, but rather the concept and general idea that remain constants. connor had heard of the ancient tradition of fathers and sons watching 'the game' from several sources, but partaking in the act itself is much different. he finds it is not un-enjoyable.

the two sit in comfortable silence (or, silent aside from hank's seemingly impulsive and uncontrollable commentary, as well as boos or cheers depending on who did what and which team scored), and connor lets himself relax, his vision going out of focus as his mind drifts.

hank freezes in his spot, eyes glued to the screen, before breaking out into a cheer. the neighbors are probably suffering.

the android thinks back on his plan. phase one has been completed. connor feels a wave of success course through him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and speaking of feeling successful, im finally fucking done!  
> it has been nearly five months! ive poured my blood, sweat, tears, italics, and soul into this first fucking chapter! im actually crying all over my glow in the dark halloween t-shirt!  
> id like to thank literally everyone i know and anyone i asked for feedback or ideas or literally anything because you did this! you helped me create this! thank you so much!  
> i hope yall enjoy this shitshow  
> get ready for chapter two because it gets Gay As Hell


	2. phase one complete. initiating phase two. current objective: ask markus.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> connor suggests the idea of a Normal Human Family Dinner to markus. it doesn't seem like it goes very well, until it does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it gets real gay, sis  
> also, catch my extra ass making this way longer and more ridiculously detailed than it needs to be

the next part of the plan is to ask markus. for some reason, connor feels as though he can, and should, be more upfront than he was with hank, since markus would just put pressure on connor until his vague line of questioning cracked and broke like a weak dam, letting the truth pour out in a big mess. connor feels like being 100% honest from the get-go is a better idea. it also stops him from flooding the neighboring towns, destroying homes, and causing thousands in property damage.

metaphorically, of course.

connor isn't very good at metaphors yet.

it seemed to be more of a human thing, and even though connor had been a deviant for a little while now (a year was at least a little while, anyway), he was still trying to get a grip on a lot of human things.

of course, since becoming a deviant, connor's also become more prone to human-like mistakes- he has all of the emotions and feelings but knows nothing about what they mean or what to do about them- meaning that no matter how sharp his mind, no matter how cutting-edge his technology, he's bound to slip up in little ways.

like how he doesn't think about the fact that neither he nor markus need to eat until he invites the man in question to his and hank's house for dinner. in connor's defense, he was very focused on completing his plan successfully, and didn't even stop to think about it.

what a fool.

when approached with the question- connor trying his hardest not to stutter through a slightly forced "would you like to come to dinner at my house?"- markus laughs. it isn't sarcastic or malicious, just humorous, like a mix of a reaction to a joke and him just expressing happiness. connor finds his response strange and a crease forms between his eyebrows, making his confusion visual.

"dinner?" markus questions, trying to confirm what he'd heard. there's still a smile on his face and his eyebrow is quirked. he looks highly amused. connor doesn't understand, and not understanding makes him uncomfortable.

"yes." connor 'confirms' after a pause, suddenly unsure of every choice he's ever made in life.

"i," he hesitates, "i would like you to meet my family."

it feels like his cerebral processor is malfunctioning, but he had run several diagnostics checks throughout the course of the day, and everything was fine internally. the tightness of his throat and the pounding in his chest made connor beg to differ.

markus freezes at his words, and his amused smile slips off his face. connor's thirium pump, while already beating irregularly, has somehow sped up, slowly pushing him into a state of panic. he doesn't know what he's done wrong, but it seems like he's managed to mess- whatever the hell you could even call the interaction at this point- up even worse. first, his serious inquiry made markus /laugh/, and now he's managed to make markus /unhappy/. desperate to fix the situation, he begins to elaborate.

he explains to markus the tradition of humans having their partners meet their family over dinner in some sort of societal ritual to see if their family thinks said partner is worthy of them, or if their family will like the person they've chosen to love as much as they do. he insists that no matter hank's reaction, connor will still love, and always love markus, and insists that their 'family dinner' will be much closer to the latter situation he's described than the former. he's very clear that it isn't going to be some kind of test, and he just wants the two people (and one dog) that he loves the most in the world to meet. markus' expression switches from listening and thoughtful to something more soft. connor mistakes it as pity, and he also quickly adds the fact that nobody's forcing markus to accept, and he doesn't have to go if he doesn't want to.

connor may have repeated that a few times. he starts to go off on a tangent, actually, unable to stop his nervous mouth from word-vomiting once he's already begun. every backtrack he tries to make just ends up spinning him around and shoving him forward into something else. it's like he's caught in a maze, except there are no exits. connor might as well be digging his own grave at this point, but he just cant seem to stop and put down the shovel.

at least the difficult situation helped him think of a better metaphor.

markus, picking up on his boyfriend's inability to save himself, decides to cut in with a small smile and a gentle "connor." which is enough to stop the android in his tracks. he scans markus' face- not /actually/ scanning, just looking deeply- and waits for him to speak. a thousand different sentences and responses all form in his brain as thoughts; simple, incomplete bursts of idea and raw energy going off like neurons firing in his mind. every single phrase falls apart, unfurling like loose balls of yarn during the journey from his brain to his throat, and they all die on the tip of a metal and plastic tongue.

connor is silent.

his nerves stagnate, and his stress level goes on a slow decline, becoming less and less the longer markus stands there.

markus reaches out a hand and grabs one of connor's. markus' hand is warm and suddenly connor's is, too; a tingly feeling spreading across his hand and blooming up his arm like a patch of sunflowers.

the look on markus' face is calm, happy, patient; a soft, gentle expression that he only reserves for his loved ones in times where he can be genuine and show how much he cares about the people he loves the most.

times where he's no longer the leader of the revolution, where he's not being looked to for guidance, and he's not being viewed as a beacon of hope, a symbol of change and the whole of androids as a people. times when he's just markus. when he feels safe.

it makes connor feel safe, too.

he's become less anxious. even though connor can hear his 'heartbeat' in his ears, that irregular, too-fast pumping of blue blood, he feels safer. even though he's 'on the edge of his seat', he stands still, patiently awaiting markus' response.

markus is holding connor's hand in both of his now, and he pulls it close to his chest, meeting connor's eyes as he says most earnestly, "i would love to meet your family."

connor can't fight the smile that forms on his face, and he can't think of a single reason he'd ever want to.

"but," markus continues, and connor doesn't jump the gun again, waiting for the rest of the sentence before he concludes anything, "you do realize that we'd just be watching hank eat, right?"

connor freezes, his brows knitting together in a second of confusion, before it hits him. and it hits hard, too, like someone had thrown a brick at him and it had impacted him square in the face.

for a detective and one of the most advanced prototypes cyberlife had ever put out- those words coming from the founder himself- he could be remarkably slow sometimes.

markus' posture crumples and he breaks out into laughter the second he realizes connor's own realization, gripping connor's hand tighter. connor smiles, chuckling a bit at how funny his boyfriend finds his moment of stupidity, and soon both of them are laughing together, forgetting the rest of the world entirely as they just enjoy the moment.


End file.
